video games are good, except when they're not

August 14, 2016December 3, 2016

Day #227: Decompressing

Sundays have become my safe haven as of late.

When I started doing video work and adjusted my schedule so that I’d only be writing on individual games five days a week instead of seven, Sundays turned into the closest thing I had to a day off. It may not have seemed that way if you’ve looked at the rather lengthy editorials that I’ve made a habit of starting every week with. The thing is, I rarely have to plan anything with those, simply letting my brain leak out anything that I deemed particularly important at that moment. For the most part, I’d say, it’s worked out.

When trying to decide what to write about today, it was difficult for me to ignore just how tired I was. The week of oddball games that just ended wasn’t just a coincidence. You see, I was rather sick for most of the week and when I’m not feeling well, my entertainment choices tend to be a reflection of that, hence why pinball and Apple II games finally got their due. Had I not been doing this, I would have probably stayed in bed watching Supermarket Sweep reruns on Youtube.

Which is a thing I do sometimes. Shockingly, I’m single.

Point is, friends, I’m kinda burned out. I’ve been pushing very hard for very long now and will continue to do so. I don’t really have a choice. That said, I have no grand declarations to make about the game industry today; no wacky lists, no rejected freelance pitches that ended up writing anyway, just a little status report about me.

That’s what this was originally intended to be, really; more of a journal about my life framed around the games that I enjoyed. Quickly that went away and it just became about the games. People really don’t care about my life. That’s not self-loathing. It’s an understanding that Mario has a bit more mass appeal. In a lot of ways, that’s easier. Sure, some days I just stare at this screen, not having any real desire to type words about a video game, but telling you about my day isn’t going to get me any closer to working full-time in the industry. It could argued that this won’t either.

But things are moving. Dare I say, there’s a bit of momentum building. More people are reading than ever have before. The Youtube channel is (slowly) growing. I have about ten times the Twitter followers that I did a few months ago. Someone out there does care and does like the content that I put out, which is why I felt the compulsion to type something here, even if the gist of this entire post is me simply saying “hey, I’m kinda tired and taking a day off”.

For that, I thank you. It means the world to me.

As a token of my appreciation, a long No Man’s Sky video’s going up tomorrow, followed by a week of Genesis games, as was highly requested.